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Nino Bilic mentioned on a recent post at the You Had Me At EHLO blog, 4 new Microsoft IT whitepapers. I already blogged about 3 of them, so the real new one is this:

Operating a Global Messaging Environment by Using Exchange Server 2007 – Enterprise IT organizations, including the Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) group, deal with service level agreements (SLAs) and power users accustomed to high levels of performance, availability, and responsiveness. The 130,000-plus users at Microsoft send over 3 million internal e-mail messages a day from more than 150 offices worldwide, as well as from home and while on the road. At Microsoft, many business-critical communication processes depend on the availability of messaging services provided through Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007. […]

We have updated the log generation numbers per message profile to be in line with our updated guidance.

In v11.8, we decided to list the database cache per mailbox in the Storage Requirements results section. However this lead to confusion because it was named “Memory Profile / Mailbox” which implied that you would only utilize the associated amount of memory with the message profile (i.e. 5MB with Heavy profile), however that is not always the case. For example, 1200 2GB Light message profile mailboxes only requires 5GB of RAM (1200 * 2MB + 2GB), however the design requires 13 databases, which with SP1 requires 6GB of RAM. ESE will utilize 4GB of that RAM for the cache. As a result, 4096MB / 1200 ≈ 3.5MB per mailbox. So to make this clear, we have changed this text to be “Database Cache / Mailbox” which indicates how much cache is available per mailbox.

In the scenario where you override the IOPS prediction formula for your mailbox tiers, we have adjusted the “Read:Write Ratio” input to allow you to enter any read percentage you would like, rather than restricting you to a few key ratios.

We updated the “Database Reads / Mailbox” calculation description.

We updated the Log Replication Requirements worksheet, simplifying the data displayed in the results section.

We have included new functionality for log replication requirements. You now have the input options for entering your network link type and its associated latency. These options are then used to recommend TCP/IP optimization settings for Windows Server 2003 when utilizing geographically dispersed clustering and/or standby continuous replication. In addition, if the chosen network link cannot sustain the throughput requirements for log replication, we will recommend an appropriately sized network link and Windows Server 2003 TCP/IP optimization settings.

The January edition of TechNet Magazine is now available online or, if you prefer, you can download as an HTML Help .chm file for offline reading.

Now that the hype around Service Pack 1 for Exchange Server 2007 is almost gone, the main subject is now System Center, with a special enphasys on virtualization. Remember that Hiper-V is almost ready and its debut is expect around the same time frame for the release of Windows Server 2008.

But this issue of TechNet Magazine wouldn’t be complete without some articles around the messaging theme and/or some technologies related with Exchange Server.

Regarding this latest link, I would like to call your attention to the cluster installation instructions. In the previous version, although you could install it on a cluster environment, it wasn’t really cluster aware, which could originate some annoying events in the Application Event Log.

There is a hotfix you can request from Microsoft, which is described in this KB article:

The ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory is an Active Directoryspecificautomation and scripting shell that provides a command-linemanagement interface for administering directory data either via QuestActiveRoles Server or by directly accessing Active Directory domaincontrollers. The ActiveRoles Management Shell is built on Microsoft WindowsPowerShell technology.

The ActiveRoles Management Shell is implemented as a Windows PowerShellsnap-in, providing an extension to the Windows PowerShell environment.

As the commands provided by the ActiveRoles Management Shell conform tothe Windows PowerShell standards, and are fully compatible with the defaultcommand-line tools that come with Windows PowerShell, the informationfound in the above documents of Microsoft’s is fully applicable to theActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory.

Recently, I was trying to export all the Proxy Addresses from some users, so this cmdlets turned out to be very handy. Here’s the command I ran:

OverviewThe 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 1 delivers important customer-requested stability and performance improvements, while incorporating further enhancements to user security. This service pack also includes all of the updates released for the 2007 Office suite prior to December of 2007. You can get a more complete description of SP1, including a list of issues that were fixed, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 936982: Description of the 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 1.Service Pack 1 will install even if a publicly available update has already been installed on your computer.SP1 also includes stability improvements developed as a result of user input from the Microsoft Online Crash Analysis and from Microsoft Product Support feedback.

To successfully install SP1, you must have Microsoft Installer 3.1 (MSI 3.1) or higher. For more information, including instructions for downloading MSI 3.1, please see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 942101.

To successfully install SP1, you will need more free hard disk space than the size of the patch itself. For more specific information about the space requirements, please see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 943589.

InstructionsThere are several scenarios that may require you to reboot your computer after SP1 is installed. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 942995.To install this update, do one of the following:

Use Microsoft Update (recommended). Microsoft Update consolidates updates provided by Windows Update and Office Update into one location and enables you to choose automatic delivery and installation of high-priority updates.

Use Office Update on the Office Online Web site. After running the automatic detection, Office Update prompts you to install updates and service packs that bring your Office products up to the best quality available. Office Update is not supported on Windows Vista.

Download the file by clicking the Download button at the top of this page. Save the file to your hard disk drive. Note: The 2007 Office suite SP1 is available on CD-ROM through the Office Online page Order Office Service Packs on CD-ROM.

It is recommended that you quit any programs you are running.

In Windows Explorer, double-click the .exe file that you saved to your hard disk drive, and follow the instructions on the screen.

When using other Microsoft Office productsIf you are using the following Microsoft Office products, we recommend that you get the latest service packs:

Q&A With the Exchange Server MVP ExpertsWe invite you to attend a Q&A with the Microsoft Exchange Server MVPs. In this chat Exchange MVPs will be on hand to answer your questions about Exchange Server, Outlook and Exchange for Small Business Server. So if you are thinking of upgrading to Exchange Server 2007 or have questions about Exchange Server 2003 we hope you can join us for this informative online chat!